Iranian authorities have arrested seven for allegedly planning to provoke rioting on February 11, the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, including several in the employ of the US Central Intelligence Agency, according to a statement released Sunday by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security. The seven people detained were said to …

The Iraqi appeals panel that had ruled last week that 500 mostly Sunni politicians accused of ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party could stand in the coming elections reversed its decision Sunday. In its ruling, which was handed down as hundreds protested in Baghdad, the court stated that it was mistaken in thinking it had …

Israel has not shown that it will conduct a thorough and impartial investigation of alleged war crimes during the January 2009 Gaza conflict, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Sunday. HRW said that it met with lawyers from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), but it did not receive information concerning how …

Pakistan will begin to revise its blasphemy laws later this year, a government official told the Agence France-Presse Sunday. Pakistan's Federal Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti said he has been speaking to various political parties in Pakistan and that his government is committed to doing away with laws that are discriminatory to minorities. Bhatti …

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday urged the US Supreme Court to dismiss as moot an appeal filed by Chinese Muslim Uighurs detained at Guantanamo Bay. The court granted certiorari in the case, known as Kiyemba I, in October to determine whether …

Iraqi leaders on Saturday urged the country's Supreme Court to rule on the recent electoral appeals panel decision allowing about 500 candidates who had been banned for alleged ties to the outlawed Baath party to run in the March 7 parliamentary elections. The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has turned to the Iraq Supreme Court …